Garment workers
in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US Commonwealth, were producing
$1
billion/year of goods with Made in the USA
labels. The workers toiled in sweat shop conditions in factories that
relied on human trafficking to acquire an indentured servant workforce.

Between 1995 and
2001, Young served as chair of the House Resources Committee. During
this period his committee terminated seven bills that would have halted
this pseudo-slavery
by applying US labor and/or immigration laws to the Mariana
Islands. Two of these bills were submitted to the US House
by Senator Frank Murkowski with overwhelming Senate approval, and a
third was submitted by Rep. Bob Franks with a solid majority of US House
members signing on as co-sponsors.

What motivates such
morally corrupt behavior? The revolving door between convicted aides
to Don Young and convicted lobbyist Jack
Abramoff are revealing. Abramoff was lobbyist for the Northern
Mariana Islands, arranged for Young’s
visit in February 1999, and he wrote a revealing letter to the governor
of the Northern Mariana Islands, bragging
about Don Young's power, and Abramoff's influence.

Epilogue: After the US
granted China permanent normal trade relation
status in 2001, some garment factories moved out of the Mariana
Islands to factories in China,
with even lower wages. Once Young was relegated to the House minority,
bills began moving through
Congress that applied US laws to the Mariana
Islands, ending the pseudo-slavery that Young and others
were fighting
to preserve. Young finally relented on April 29, 2008 when the
House was poised to overwhelmingly impose U.S.
labor and immigration laws on the Mariana Islands.